WEBVTT

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We're going to talk a little bit
about the origin of this particular tour.

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President Kennedy was now clearly
in the beginning of his third year

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of his presidency, and he had been invited
to Gettysburg several times,

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and always had declined
because of previous commitments.

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So interestingly, on March 30th, 1963,
President Kennedy initiates a phone call

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that was made actually to his personally
selected guides home phone number.

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And his personally selected guide
would have been Jacob Melchior Sheads.

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That phone rang in the Sheads’
home over on Stratton Avenue.

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One of his sons picked up the phone
and said to his father,

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Dad, the president's on the phone.

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Yeah, right.

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He had to really convince his dad
to pick up the phone.

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And when he when he did,
he did speak briefly to the president.

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He agreed to the tour the next day.

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And then as somebody from
the Secret Service was put on the line.

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Now, what the Secret Service did
was set up a pre-tour

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where they were going to come up later
that day on Saturday, March

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30th, and plan out the tour
for security reasons.

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So that was done.

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And then the next morning,
a late morning Kennedy

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and his three car caravan
arrived here from Emmitsburg, Maryland.

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They would have been driving

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on the Emmitsburg Road right behind
us, coming up from initially Camp David.

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They pulled into this parking lot right
here.

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Colonel Shields got on the other side,
got in the passenger side of the vehicle,

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and the president and he
and those other two vehicles sped off,

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heading north

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to begin their battlefield
tour on the morning

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of March 31st, 1963.